The purpose of the present study was to establish whether students’ self competence
beliefs and IQ interact when they need to perform at school and if so, whether this
interaction is moderated by age and/or sex. The mean grade in mathematics, selfcompetence
beliefs in mathematics, IQ, age, sex and socioeconomic status of 928
French Canadian students from Montreal high schools were analyzed. As predicted,
the students’ IQ and self‐competence beliefs in mathematics correlated in a positive
and significant way with their average grade in mathematics. Analyses also confirmed
a significant correlation between the IQ and students’ self‐competence beliefs.
When broken down, this interaction shows that for students with high selfcompetence
beliefs, the predictive value of IQ is higher, but for students with low selfcompetence
beliefs, the relationship between IQ and performance does not change
significantly. Finally, age and sex do not influence the interaction between the IQ and
students’ self‐competence beliefs, nor are they correlated with academic performance.
Clinical implications are discussed.